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Dark Covenant, by Peter Luther July 12, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a comment

I wandered into Camden Waterstone’s one Saturday morning to find Peter Luther sitting on his own behind large pile of books.  He’s a chatty, friendly bloke, and the book looked interesting so I bought it and it’s been sitting on my pile ever since.  Tonight, suffering from Dr Who deprivation, I picked it up again.

Dark Covenant is a good all-in-one-sitting read, a thriller with a hint of the supernatural, exploring the idea of temptation and what ordinary people might be driven to do in extreme circumstances.  Lewis Coin is a respected but average lawyer building up to a serious mid-life crisis when he finds himself given some extraordinary opportunities.  No hero, he drifts along with the luck he’s offered in much the same way as he has clearly led his life to date and is dragged into a murky world which slowly gets stranger and stranger.   There’s something very believable about the way the situation fails to bring out anything much more in him.

What is more difficult to believe is that, as a lawyer, neither he nor his partners  put any effort into investigating the unusual new client who lands on their doorstep and turns their failing firm into a clear success.  In this day of money-laundering regulations and security paranoia, it seems unlikely that even the greediest lawyer would not at least check a client a little more thoroughly than this lot do.

Although there are religious overtones, and a supernatural explanation for events is given, there are no holy grails or grand cathedrals here.  In fact, Coin’s attempts at technological explanations sound more unlikely than the one finally given.

This would be a good book for the beach, or a quiet summer afternoon in the park.

Doctor Who series 4 (Spoiler warning) July 7, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , 1 comment so far

Over the last three months, I’ve developed a routine for Saturday nights. Go out, do whatever, come home and watch Dr Who on the BBC’s iplayer. It being Saturday night, this wasn’t me at my most sober, and was rarely at 6.30 or whatever random but early time Auntie decided to broadcast.

Doctor and DonnaAnd, I have to admit it, I’ve also developed a slightly unhealthy obsession. I remember watching Dr Who as a child, in the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years, and enjoying it, but details are long gone. When it reappeared in 2005, I saw the occasional episode at friend’s houses, but as my only TV is an unreliable freeview usb-card and recording doesn’t work I missed most. And then, about a year ago, the iplayer was launched and BBC3 reran all the David Tennant episodes. I was hooked.
I realised just how hooked when I came back from holiday the other week to discover that the previous episode, Turn Left, wasn’t on the iplayer and, to make matter’s worse, a well-meaning but foolish friend managed to tell me about the cliffhanger in The Stolen Earth before I had a chance to see it. Not good.

And, as with all the new series, I’ve loved this one. Sometimes it’s wildly silly (the giant wasp), sometimes it’s funny (the miming when the Doctor and Donna meet again in Partners in Crime), sometimes I wonder if it really is family viewing (bondage references in Forest of the Dead), sometimes its just plain sad (the death of River Song and, far worse, the not-death of Donna). We’ve had tight theatrical drama in Midnight, and a mega-effect space romp in the finale, with romance, comedy, and bleak post-holocaust drama in between.

Catherine Tate was so much better than I’d expected. Her comedy show didn’t do it for me, and the character in the Christmas Special was a bit too brash for my taste, but by the second episode, she’d settled down into something far more interesting. What forty-something single woman could fail to identify with Donna? Okay, I have a much better job and my mother is a LOT nicer, but the idea of finding yourself exploring the universe, saving planets and doing something useful for a change, all in the company of a bloke like that has a definite appeal and its nice to see that its not only open to athletic teenagers. Unlike Rose and Martha who always seemed out to impress, she kept a human frailty. She couldn’t cope with the tragic song of the Ood, was scared silly at the idea of whacking a Sontaran, doesn’t always say the right thing, but somehow finds it in herself to keep up with the Doctor. Catherine Tate’s ability to get all that together, and handle the outrageous amounts of running, wins her a place as the best companion of the new series.

Among his many talents, David Tennant is a master of the closeup which tells an unspoken story. As Davros torments him with his record of sending people he meets to their deaths, or in Midnight when he is rendered speechless by the alien and threatened with being thrown out of the spaceship, all the regret or fear is there, without being melodramatic. Perhaps its in keeping with the idea of his character getting over the trauma of the time war, but he too seems to have settled down, at least in his negative emotions, to something more subtle and appealing.

Most of all the series is just stonking good fun. It may not always be consistent, the technobabble is just babble, and sometimes the dei ex machinis are just a bit too unlikely, but who cares? Without being preachy or too perfect, it manages to uplift, entertain, and look fabulous.

Now, we’re faced with an hiatus next year, with a series of four specials as well as the one at Christmas where we’re promised David Morrissey and Cybermen. I’m sure Russell T Davies has far better ideas than I do, but, just in case he’s scrounging around, here’s what I’d like to see:

Finally, this obsession has led me to a couple of good Dr Who blogs, if you’d like to indulge a little more. Behind the Sofa reviews every episode very thoroughly, sometimes pulling in continental philosophy and often quite ready to point out flaws. Flickfilosopher is a science-fiction oriented film-review blog, who’s author is considerably more obsessed than I, and her Dr Who postings are selfconfessed love-fests.

Ferry to Skopelos June 26, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , add a comment

At midnight on Tuesday, the GA Ferries ship Ntaliana set sail from Thessaloniki for the overnight voyage to Skopelos in the Sporades, 9 hours south. For such a very large boat, finding it was quite a challenge. The big building with a sign which looked a lot like Passenger Terminal was a red herring and the ship itself was at the other end of the wharves. Wandering around strange docks on my own is one of my favourite ways to spend an evening.

I’d booked a berth in a 2-bed cabin, and either I had no roommate, or she didn’t show up. Or she did show up, saw my stuff and demanded another cabin. The bondage gear comes in handy sometimes. About twice the size of a Scotrail sleeper, with proper bathroom, it was all mine. The lack of a key was a bit odd, but I could lock it from the inside, though a trip to the deck involved carrying all my valuables with me. As I’m travelling like a branch of Dixons at the moment (laptop, phone, mp3 player, camera) the handbag was heavy. Convergence would help a lot - tech companies take note.

Leaving the port was wonderful. The big engines quietly churned and we had soon left the noise of the dock bars in the distance. The city’s lights glowed behind us, the Chalkidiki peninsula’s to our left, and a huge orange half-moon hung so low in the sky it could have been a mountain top. Chalkidiki is so built up now that there are lights almost all the way to the lighthouse at the tip.

Gulls surfed the air turbulence while fish jumped through our wake. Slowly, stars appeared. Its a long time since I’ve seen a lot of stars.

The sea was calm, and I slept well, waking up to full sunlight and the realisation that the porthole looked out onto a deck. Hello, Sailor, indeed.

First port of call was Skiathos, and then on through beautiful clear seas to Skopelos. The boat left me there, and headed on south to the Cyclades and Crete. It makes the round trip every couple of days, and I’ll get it back on Saturday. For €73, which is less than I paid for my hotel in Thessaloniki, its a great way to travel.

Back to the beginning June 22, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 1 comment so far

Right, lets start at the beginning. In the case of Thessaloniki, that’s an awfully long time ago. According to the Archaeological Museum, there have been humans around here for about 200,000 years, though the city itself was founded in 321BC by Alexander the Great’s brother in law, who named it after his wife.

The highlight of the Archaeological Museum is the Gold of Macedon, grave goods from the many graves which have been excavated. That of Phillip II is the most famous and, if I can sort out the bus timetables, is the plan for Tuesday. I’m charmed by the beautiful gold sheet work in crowns of delicate golden flowers. They look so fragile, but have survived so long.

After the museum, I head off to find the Roman city. The Palace and Arch of the 4th century AD emperor Galerius, who ruled as part of the 4-emperor tetrarchy, sit in the middle of the post-war apartment blocks which characterise so much of the city.

Arch of Galerius, with detail inset

A little further north is the Rotunda, which my guidebook tells me has the best mosaics outside Ravenna and Constantinople. Its a bit hard to tell, because the interior is covered in restorers scaffolding, but the bits I can see sparkle in gold. Like the Pantheon in Rome, this building has survived intact from ancient times by being consecrated as a church, then becoming a mosque and is now a church again. The mosaics I can see look Islamic, rather than Christian, with birds and abstract shapes.

Rotunda

In between, there’s lots of sitting in coffee shops and enjoying the sunshine. Its still all very quiet, and clearly not a tourist town. Even the hotel seems to be more for business people than for tourists.

Barrel wine and the war on moisturiser June 21, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a comment

I remember now why I gave up flying. When the automaton at the airport took my conditioner because it was 150ml, not 100ml, I’m sure the free world was saved from an atrocity. It’s the first time I’ve had to do the shoe thing, which just shows how long its been. Of course, its deeply uncool now to winge about these nasty little nuisances. The terrorists won long ago, aided and abetted by NuLabor.

Greece, the sea and some sunshine are worth putting up with bureaucratic silliness, and I spent the afternoon wandering around the waterfront of Thessaloniki. Looking for dinner at about 8.30, I turned a corner and found the local Goths, though they seem to be the only life around the place. The bars and restaurants of Ladhadikha, the district behind the port, have emptied for the summer and sensible Thessalonikans have headed for the beach.

Still, I managed to find a pleasant wee taverna called Negroponte, with a drinkable barrel wine and basic menu, recommended by the Rough Guide but with local and tourist clientele. No menu, so I thought I was in for one of those kitchen adventures you occasionally get in places which don’t have a lot of tourists, where they take you out the back and show you boiling pots of stuff which smell fantastic, taste wonderful and could be stewed cat for all I know. But the waiter explained the dishes perfectly, and I found myself with a very good salad and rather boring meatballs. Eating in this part of the world is less about cuisine, and much more about being outside, taking it slowly and watching the world go by, and the bill only came to €14.

Tomorrow, museums and ruins, and trying to work out which beach to go to for the second half of the week.

Buddhism Without Beliefs, By Stephen Batchelor May 28, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a comment

Buddhism, at least as I have seen it from Tibetan teachers, is non-theistic, with a strong emphasis on questioning, study and personal examination of the ideas presented. Every time I’ve heard the Dalai Lama teach he has talked about the need to examine the teachings critically and decide for yourself whether they are true or not. Some ancient texts have clearly been superceded by modern science, and it would be fairly unreasonable to continue to believe that the world sits atop Mt Meru, in the face of pictures of the Earth from space, or to continue to believe in ancient Indian theories of the origin of the universe, to cite two examples he gave.

What then to make of karma and reincarnation, two basic tenets which seem to underpin a large part of Buddhist philosophy, but which are very problematic, at least for this unknowledgeable student?

Karma always strikes me as wishful thinking. If life’s not going well, its all because of stuff that I did long ago in a time that I can’t remember, let alone take responsibility for. If someone does something bad, at least they’ll get their comeuppance down the line, even if they get away with it now. This idea that the universe is essentially fair sounds nice, but how on earth would it work? I listen to the teachings on the idea that things do not exist in and of them selves, but are dependent on causes. The person writing this article only exists because of her body and mind, temporary things, and she becomes even more sceptical about karma and reincarnation. The Indian philosophers seem to tie themselves in knots trying to reconcile reincarnation with the logical conclusions of their own observations.

It’s timely to re-read Buddhism without Beliefs by the English scholar and former monk Stephen Batchelor. His suggests that an agnostic position on karma and rebirth is probably the honest one, though he takes a very ‘middle way’ approach in saying that ‘we neither have to adopt the literal versions of rebirth presented by religious tradition nor fall into the extreme of regarding death as annihilation’. I’m agnostic about rebirth in the same way as I’m agnostic about Richard Dawkin’s teapots, convinced but not willing to be quite as strident as he out of respect for those who do believe.

Batchelor then goes on to show how, without these articles of faith, Buddhism still stands up as a good basis for living. He talks about it as something to do, not something to believe in. Understanding things as they are, being honest about that even if its not comfortable and trying to be more compassionate of others. Sounds sensible to me

Protesting Against the Dalai Lama?? May 27, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany, Politics , comments closed

I’d been expecting Chinese protests at the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Nottingham, but not a row of about 20 monks and nuns carrying placards saying ‘Stop Lying’ and ‘Dalai Lama Give Religious Freedom’. Shouting loudly, they weren’t getting much attention from people going into the teachings. I went up and asked one what he was protesting about. He kept shouting and pointed at a nun standing at the end of the line. She claimed that the Dalai Lama was making it impossible for Tibetans to carry out a particular religious practice, for political reasons.

This is about the worship of a Tibetan deity, Dorje Shugden. And here we delve into the opaque world of Tibetan religion and politics. Dorje Shugden may, or may not, be a manifestation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva (saint) of Wisdom. He may, or may not, be a 17th century lama who remains as a protector spirit of some sort. It’s a long way from the rarefied world of Nagarjuna’s ideas on the nature of reality and the philosophical text His Holiness has been teaching this week.

In Bodhgaya in 1998, I heard His Holiness teach 100,000 people, most of them Tibetans. At that time, he explained that he believed that the Dorje Shugden practice was a large part of the karmic cause of the problems now facing Tibet, and would also shorten his own life. He asked people not to do it. He also said that if people wanted to do it, they could, but please would they not attend his teachings or religious ceremonies.

That is a lot more powerful than it sounds. Many Tibetans, and westerners who are Buddhists in the Tibetan tradition will do whatever the Dalai Lama asks them to do. His political power may be limited, but his influence is huge. There are reports that Tibetans who continue to carry out Dorje Shugden practice are ostracised, unable to get jobs and suffer persecution, though Amnesty International do not think this is bad enough for them to get involved.

So where does that leave this woolly liberal then? A man who is revered world-wide, champion of a cause for which I have the utmost sympathy, who I admire greatly, is accused of something like this.

It strikes me that if you really believe in karma and the efficacy of religious practice to influence the world outside your own mind, then you have to bear the consequences. One of those consequences surely has to be a limitation on freedom to practice anything, no matter how harmful it might be to others. Clearly enough Tibetans agree that the Dalai Lama is right that this practice is harmful, and those doing it at least believe that it is worth doing. If you operate in that sort of worldview, continuing to do the harmful practice is a bit like playing your stereo very loud all weekend - you might enjoy it, but the neighbours don’t, and eventually, if they are more powerful or have greater authority than you, you will have to stop.

Religious freedom has its limits, and those limits have to be felt when the religious practice has harmful consequences beyond the practitioners. I wouldn’t agree, say, with the re-imposition of parish tithes in the name of religious freedom. It’s just that in this case it operates inside a worldview where karma is a law of nature and religious practices have real effects. It seems that both sides of this argument share that worldview, but the dispute is over the nature of the effect of the practice. The stakes are high, and is it really unreasonable for the Tibetan authorities to try to do something about it?

Loch Fyne Restaurant, King St, Nottingham May 25, 2008

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So, here I am in Nottingham, ready to hear His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak on the nature of reality. In the meantime, I’m hungry and looking for dinner. The Loch Fyne in King St is a likely proposition. I’ve never heard of it, unlike the Pizza Express and Zizzi’s nearby, and the menu looks good.

But what, I ask, is an Ashet of Fruit. I’ve never heard that word in my life. It looks like one of those combinations you try in Scrabulous, and are bemused to find it accepted. Apparently it means ‘plate’ (ok, I could have figured that from context) and is Gaelic, and cognate with Assiette. Whatever. You learn something new most days.

This is a seafood place, with scallops, which I love. I’m not a very good Buddhist, so the half-bottles of wine on the menu are a very good idea. I select a Domaine de Dorices Muscadet, which is dry, white and crisp, and apparently without chemicals. It lives up to the publicity, and fortunately my favourite chemical, ethanol, doesn’t count.

I start with scallops grilled in chilli butter, which are very good indeed. The battered haddock with chips is more ordinary, as is the apple pie. The muscat by the glass goes down well with the apple pie.

As I eat, the chef is wrapping polenta portions into clingfilm sausages at the open kitchen. I’m never sure about open kitchens. There are some things you just don’t need to see.

Loch Fyne is a chain, with about 40 restaurants around the UK. There are none in London so it’s new to me. I’m not going to rave about it, but its perfectly fine, though a seafood restaurant, could do better haddock and chips, and should have a fish soup of some sort. Perhaps I’m prejudiced. A full three course meal ended up being just on £40, which is not bad considering the wine bill.

Henrys, Richards and Roses May 19, 2008

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Why oh why didn’t I book to go to all eight of Shakespeare’s Histories? The four I saw (Richard II, and Henry VI parts 1, 2, 3) were sublime, and two in a row on Saturday was an intense pleasure. I don’t think I’ve ever been so absorbed in theatre in my life.

Actors give fine performances, but as they’ve been working together on these plays for thirty months, none really stands out from the excellence of the entire ensemble. Clive Wood as Henry Bolingbroke in Richard II and the Duke of York in Henry VI and the Chuk Iwuji as the weak and unworldly Henry VI are wonderful, but even lowly soldiers seem to be completely in their roles throughout.

The RSC has built a theatre within a theatre, duplicating the thrust stage of the Courtyard in Stratford on Avon. It’s not quite in the round, but comes out in the middle of the audience.

Battles rage throughout 3 Henry VI as England descends into chaos and in the front row we cower at swords clashing inches away. Actors climb ropes and are hauled up on wires. Entrances are through the stalls, and from the balcony. The entire theatre is the stage.

I’m booked for Hamlet and Love’s Labours Lost in the autumn, and I just can’t wait.

Donating for Burma May 12, 2008

Posted by cathrynsymons in : Politics , add a comment

I have a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi in my hallway, given to me by a friend who has spent a lot of time working with Burmese refugees on the Thai border. She is an inspiration, a symbol of perseverance against the most intractable of obstacles.

It’s taken me a week to decide that it is worth donating to Burma. Not because I don’t want to, but what’s the point if aid is just seized by the junta and doesn’t get to the people its intended for? If there was ever a case for military intervention, this looks like one to me. I imagine squads of marines in powerboats speeding up the delta with food parcels, medicines and perhaps medics, rather than airdrops. I’ve no idea if that’s possible. It would be a far better use of the armed forces than anything in Iraq. It might even justify its existence.

So, I’m with Nick Cohen of the Observer on this one. Dithering and handwringing are no good at all. Our government has already established that it doesn’t care about sovereignty when it suits. It’s time to do something good for a change.

If you can’t command an army, you can at least donate through the Disasters Emergency Committee, which includes Oxfam, Christian Aid and other charities.